Using Data to Drive Your Grant-Seeking Decisions

*Note from Diane: I am excited to announce that I am now blogging for Nonprofit Pro, which has a magazine, website and daily e-newsletter, NonProfit PRO Today. You’ll find Diane’s posts on grants in the NonProfit PRO Today e-newsletter.

This post was originally published on Nonprofit Pro on April 4, 2017 (read full post here).

I never guess. It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts. — Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of Sherlock Holmes stories

In our grant applications, we are careful to select the best statistics to set out our need statement. We are careful to use the best descriptions about the demographics of those our organization serves each day.

However, grant-seeking organizations need to remember, in the midst of the overlapping application deadlines, to step back from each organization and look at their own data and metrics related to their entire grant-seeking effort. Pausing to look at the metrics and data about an organization’s grant-seeking strategy and looking at more than just an award percentage, will give clear indicators to an organization’s areas of strength or areas for improvement in their grant-seeking efforts.